09-28-2010, 01:22 AM | #1251 |
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It was a hilarious scene, but I hated how Nagisa put an understating, childish spin on it. Way to hammer in (lol?) the loli feel, you lusty wench. >(
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09-28-2010, 05:49 AM | #1252 |
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HOLY SHIT. Okay, I definitely underestimated Clannad After Story. Holy shit.
So, I'm through Episode 17. (Two word reference point: five years.) And I've gotta say, I totally feared that what would happen in Episode 16 would happen, but I didn't expect it would happen. I thought that they were just teasing us, trying to scare us a bit for good dramatic effect. I could have sworn that I even read in Mcsweeney's spoiler boxes that: Spoiler: show And yet it did. Oh, did it ever. Holy shit, talk about majorly depressing. To think, now, that I have to compound with this the spoiler which Mcsweeney told me about ... I'm just not sure I could go on, in Tomoya's shoes. I mean, man: given what Mcsweeney said, this sounds like it's seriously heading towards slit wrists territory. Damn. Besides: Spoiler: show But yeah. Episode 18 onward today. Probably will finish the show, but we'll see.
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09-28-2010, 09:28 AM | #1254 |
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Isn't Tomoyo After the one bonus episode which aired the summer following the end of Clannad, i.e. S1?
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09-28-2010, 10:25 AM | #1255 |
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The bonus episodes that was after the first season was what happens in Tomoyo's path. I guess Kyoto wanted people to get a taste of what every character's path is like.
Also, yes, Ushio's path made me baw like a bitch. |
09-28-2010, 12:24 PM | #1256 |
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I finished Daibanchou-Big Bang Age-. Well, one route atleast. I liked the characters (except the main character) and the gameplay was kinda fun, but everything else was sorta lame. The story was typical "the gates of hell is about to open and a group of humans has to stop it from destroying the earth." I did like the gameplay a bit though. It gave more leeway with the characters than Rance did, so I could pump time into my favorite characters and they'd be badass, rather than have level limits. Also, like I stated earlier, I liked the character cast. So overall, Daibanchou was half in half for me. I didn't care at all for the story, and the main character was really lame and cliche, while I liked the gameplay and most of the other characters. I might try for the other route later.
Oh, as far as special features go. Unlike Rance, this game actually has a CG gallery and music gallery! It also has a check list of all the character clears you've gotten. I just wish it has the section where you could talk to the Alice Soft twins.... I'm currently rewatching CCS, but I'm going slowly on that. I might start playing Gilligan's Island if I feel like it. It's already patched and installed. EDIT: Right after season 2 ended, Kyoto decides to announce a K-On movie. Talk about milking a franchise. By the time K-On's popularity wears off, all the characters will have pancake titties. Last edited by big bad birtha; 09-28-2010 at 01:55 PM. |
09-28-2010, 02:59 PM | #1257 |
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I just finished Episode 18. Thoughts ...
That was the best series finale I've seen maybe ever! ........... wait, whaddya mean it's not the series finale? Whaddya mean she, .... wait, what? What did you say? Wha-- I am CRUSHED ALREADY, knowing what you've said in the spoiler tags, Mcsweeney. Absolutely CRUSHED. This is just terrible. ;_________; The way episode 18 ends, it's really, really like a genuine series finale. So much climactic character development occurs, and the character learns the most important lesson he's learned yet, etc etc. I mean, ....... it played out like a series finale episode. Even if what was to follow was happy, I'd still think it unnecessary. I'd think it all epilogue stuff. But it's not all happy. It's goddamn ridiculously tragic. And I've got to plow through and watch it. Damn. This is going to be bad. How could you do this to me, Clannad!? ;_____; What was Season 1 even for!? ;________________;
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09-28-2010, 03:08 PM | #1258 |
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09-28-2010, 03:15 PM | #1259 |
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Yes, that is by far the most powerful scene in the whole show and SHOULD have ended there.
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09-28-2010, 03:16 PM | #1260 | |
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Well, you ought to know, Mcsweeney, that Wikipedia's Wiki Nazis apparently do not value your opinion. That, or you fall under their Nazi radar. Because ...
Quote:
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09-28-2010, 03:21 PM | #1261 |
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Oh god, there's no fighting the Wikipedia gestapo, forget about it.
Clannad After is also ranked #1 on Anime News Network!
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09-28-2010, 03:35 PM | #1262 |
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Another thing that's annoying is that Air is ranked way the hell low on ANN, like in the 200s. Which makes it the odd Key anime out that isn't ranked insanely high (Kanon 2006 is in the top 25). There's actually quite a few similar themes in Clannad After and Air (they're all about family ties), but I felt the latter pulled it off better. And, as good as that field reconciliation scene you just watched is, it's no Air beach scene!
Air has the worst character designs and the worst side stories, so maybe people are turned off by that. But the central plot involving Yukito, Misuzu, and her mother is really, really strong. I see a lot of people talking shit about Air, so I've rewatched it a couple times to see if maybe I was wrong and it does suck. With each re-viewing, it just makes my original feelings about it even stronger!
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09-28-2010, 04:12 PM | #1263 | |
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I think it's undoubtedly the animation. When Kanon 2006 was about to come out and then later when it was airing, I remember people posting pictures on Wakachan of the main girl from Air. The images were often slightly PhotoShopped to accentuate the ridiculous Key tendency of drawing mouths very high on the face and drawing very, very large eyes, creating the illusion in some cels that the top of the mouth and the bottom of the eyes were resting on the same horizontal line. This is something that soon ceased when it became apparent that Kyoto Animation was re-doing the facial designs, hybridizing them with their wildly successful Suzumiya Haruhi faces, and that the new faces weren't any more ridiculous than the faces in any other anime.
I haven't played or seen Air, but it looks like it's become the forgotten sheep in the family. Quoth the Wiki, Quote:
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09-28-2010, 04:31 PM | #1264 |
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Well, Mcsweeney. You will probably be happy to know that I am fetching Air even as we speak. You have spoken highly of it for years; there is an absence of good anime on television right now; and I think I have just enough time in the next few weeks to squeeze a 13'er in. (Or a 12'er as the case may be, since I've read that Episode 13 is just a recap episode.)
Now I suppose that all I'll need to watch is Kimi ga Nozomu Eien ni and my list of "animes people have said 'DUDE YOU HAAAAAAVE TO SEE THIS! '" will be complete. Minus Doppel's recent addition of Natsu no Arashi which, despite his apparent love for the series, didn't look very good to me judging from just the OP to Episode 1 alone. (LOL! I know that's a really bad litmus test! I promise I'll watch Ep1 fully some day ... ^^; ) EDIT: Doh. How could I forget 12 Kingdoms? Still haven't seen that one.
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09-28-2010, 10:15 PM | #1265 | |
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Quote:
Now, Rance's IF Routes were not as good as True, IMV. It might be different for BBA. Usually, IF Routes in AliceSoft games are supposed to explore a lot of weird, interesting angles, i.e. Demon King Route.
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09-28-2010, 11:12 PM | #1266 |
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Well, I finished Clannad After Story. Thoughts ............
Episode 18, Episode 21, and Episode 22 -- How They Chose To End Things: Spoiler: show Episode 18 - Greatest Scene of the Series? Spoiler: show The Alternate Universe Side Story Spoiler: show Fuuko: Spoiler: show What I Feel The Message Was, and What I Feel It Could Have Been: Actually, I'm sleepy right now. But I really want to talk about this. So I'll do it tomorrow when I can write better than I feel I can right now. Sneak peek: I feel like the message of the series changed as a direct consequence of Episode 18; and then again as a consequence of Episode 21; and finally one last time as a consequence of Episode 22. Also, I feel the message which Episode 18 established would have been the best one. Look forward to tomorrow's post! Hospital? What hospital!? Spoiler: show
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09-29-2010, 12:05 AM | #1267 |
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I think Daibanchou only has two paths, and from what I've seen, the only differences is in the ending. Daibanchou does have 6 different character endings, but that's simply a bonus CG of the character you H'ed more than any of the rest at the end of the game.
Now for Clannad stuff. Spoiler: show |
09-29-2010, 12:55 AM | #1268 | |
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Quote:
Spoiler: show Clannad/Kanon: Spoiler: show
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09-29-2010, 10:32 AM | #1269 |
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I dunno if I've said it before, but I guess I can give my opinion on the Clannad Afterstory ending.
Spoiler: show For the miracles where a tragedy should've taken place but didn't thing, I'm basically used to them. It's almost a given in a story. The only time they annoy me is if they're completely over the top with it. Type-Moon also gets annoying with it since they effing spam it. By the time the story's done, every character there should've died over 9000 times. |
09-29-2010, 12:25 PM | #1271 |
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It's great that you're checking out Air. Good call on skipping episode 13, it's pointless. In fact, the subbing group The Triad didn't do it at all. Speaking of which, I find it amusing that Air is a favourite of The Triad's, since their usual tendency is toward more manly anime (Akagi, Kaiji, Detroit Metal City).
I can't guarantee that you'll like it. If it is indeed true that Clannad After has "universal critical acclaim", then Air creates more divided feelings. It's short though, so even if it turns out to be a bust for you, no big time investment.
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09-29-2010, 12:35 PM | #1272 |
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WARNING! Contains massive spoilers! But I didn't feel like using the spoiler tag. You've been warned!!
What was the message of this story? Before Episode 16 of Clannad After Story, I don't really know what I'd say was the message the show was trying to send. Maybe the same one people say it ultimately does send? The whole "family is important" angle? I suppose you could make that argument. But pre-Episode 16, the adversity encountered by the main two characters was pretty silly when compared with the adversity encountered by the characters in Kanon or in other stories. I guess the best we could say is, Tomoya didn't have a mother growing up and his father was an alcoholic deadbeat with the occasional streak of drunken abusive tendencies. Then he meets Nagisa, who has the best father and mother known to Man, and they all but adopt him. He moves out of his father's house and moves in with them, becoming like the son they never had. The end. It's a nice, quaint story, but there's no massive impact to it. After Episode 16, but before Episode 18, the show takes a turn for the depressing as Tomoya's world comes crashing down around him. I'll hold off on saying what the show's point would be here, so let's move on to the next benchmark. With Episode 18, the show clearly has a new message. And it's a very powerful one. It's a message that includes ideas like "life isn't all good but it isn't all bad either" and, more specifically, "sometimes you can't meet a wonderful person whose existence you'll cherish forever without saying good-bye to a wonderful person whose existence you cherish today." For most of us, this experience happens when we do things like move to a new city. We're sad to part with our old friends, but had we never moved then we also would never have gotten to meet our new friends. It's human nature to want both -- to want both the old and the new -- but every once in a while, we're presented with situations where getting to have both is impossible. In Nagisa's and Ushio's case, this was exactly that situation. Tomoya is haunted by Nagisa's death, and in Episode 17 we hear him repeat the belief that things would have been better had he never met Nagisa at all. Well, perhaps things would have been better for Nagisa -- and would they really have been? -- but things would have have been worse for Ushio. The fact is, a mother who dies in childbirth and a child whose birth causes the immediate death of her mother -- these two form two sides to a coin which cannot be both face-up and face-down at the same time. While Tomoya misses Nagisa, Ushio's existence is worthy of celebration. In her, Tomoya has a wonderful daughter. A daughter who loves her daddy very much. In Ushio, Tomoya finds salvation. He finds purpose. He finds his reason to live. Ushio clearly becomes the center of Tomoya's universe, and it's apparent in Episodes 19 and 20 that Ushio loves her daddy very much too. This message is completely scrapped by Episode 21. In this episode, Ushio dies, and the show clearly takes on an entirely new and different message: "no matter how crappy you think your life may be, you're better off than this guy." Tomoya effectively becomes the audience's reference point, the audience's definition which they could look up in any dictionary for the words "hopeless," "pitiful," or "unlucky." Here is a man who (a) lost his mother at an early age, (b) lost his one shot at becoming a professional who could make good money when his dad ruined his son's throwing arm, (c) lost an opportunity for a promotion at his decidedly suboptimal job as an electrician when his father's trouble with the law came back to bite him in the rear, (d) lost the love of his life to the combined effects of childbirth and her chronic illness, and finally (e) is reunited with the daughter he was too depressed to raise after five long years only to have her, too, snatched away from him by the same terrible illness -- and after only 6 months of getting back into her life. Tomoya is the world's unluckiest man. How can you not pity him? That basically becomes the show's message. And the thing is, that message sort of sucks. Because it's like saying to the audience, "Hey, look! Quitcher bitchin'! You think you've got it tough? Watch THIS!" and then you go and sadistically write up the world's most depressing plot development ever. That isn't really a good message. The message from Episode 18 -- the message of "Hey, you lost one precious person but you gained another" -- was much more powerful and much more applicable to our real lives in the real world. Most of us will not find ourselves ever in Episode 21 Tomoya's shoes, but some of us will find ourselves or people we know and care about in Episode 18 Tomoya's shoes. So I think the Episode 18 message would have been more poignant and more memorable in the long run than the Episode 21 message. Finally, we come to the Episode 22 message. This is the last episode of the show (since 23 is a prequel episode and 24 is a recap episode). And in it, we witness the magic reboot. What's the message here, then? It appears to be something along the lines of, "If you have cynical thoughts, then you will find yourself trapped inside Hell. But if you have optimistic thoughts even in the darkest of times, then you'll find that the magic city you live in will come through for you." .................... what the fuck? THIS is your final message, Key!? That we should have more faith in our magic hometowns? And that if we do that they will perform miracles for us? Come on! Think I'm crazy? Then think about this: Tomoya sees Nagisa die right in front of him. He then says, after the fact (and not before it), that "things would have been better if I'd never met you at all." Then, fast forward five years and one magic reboot, Tomoya is taken back to this moment in time, and this time he says, "No, things would not have been better. I would still call out to you, even if I had it to do all over again." And this time around, as he thinks this thought, and he is looking down on the body of his just-died-5-seconds-ago wife, he discovers that he misjudged her physical condition and, lo and behold, she had merely passed out. She was alive after all. She opens her eyes and confirms this. I mean, what? Seriously? The city is going to do Tomoya a favor after he shows a little faith but it's going to let Nagisa die when he thinks what 99.9% of us would think instinctively were we in his same situation: that our wife had just died? What the fuck sort of message is this? In the end, fans will still point to Clannad's overarching theme of "family is important," but I feel like you could argue that message for all four scenarios (pre-16, post-18, post-21, and post-22); and honestly, I feel like even that popular message would have been most evident with Episode 18. "Family is important." Yeah, no shit: family saves Tomoya. It is discovering that he still has a family which saves him from despondency. You don't really see that in the other episodes. You see him bemoaning the loss of family, rather than celebrating the discovery of it. WARNING! Contains massive spoilers! But I didn't feel like using the spoiler tag. You've been warned!!
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09-29-2010, 12:52 PM | #1275 | ||
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Well thanks!
Quote:
Spoiler: show Quote:
So yeah. I'll be posting on Air eventually. For now?
More later.
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